Answers to Questions on New York Times Midterm Election Coverage and Polling

Readers ask about election coverage

The Times invited readers to submit questions about its campaign coverage. Nearly 200 people responded, and polling was the leading subject. Readers also asked about political reporters’ assignments and work, race calls, and other parts of election coverage. Editors selected common questions for responses from several teams.

Questions about polling accuracy

With polls indicating Democrats were favored to perform strongly on Election Day, some readers asked whether the figures could be trusted. They also wondered whether support for Donald Trump and his party might be underestimated, as it had sometimes been in the past.

Other questions focused on how the newspaper ensures polling methods are sound and unbiased. The questions were sent to editors in Election Analytics, the Politics and National desks, and the Standards team.

Changes after the 2016 election

Ruth Igielnik, a Times editor who conducts polls and analyzes results, said pollsters reviewed their work after the 2016 presidential election. The review identified education as a major challenge for polling at the time.

In 2016, many college graduates voted for Hillary Clinton, while many voters without college degrees supported Donald Trump. Igielnik said many pollsters later added voters’ education levels to their statistical models to account for those differences.